'Twilight Samurai' shares film honors
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
A samurai feature from Japan, a documentary set in San Francisco and Cambodia and a locally made surfing fantasy tapping the legendary Duke Kahanamoku shared honors last night at a Hawai'i International Film Festival awards celebration at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The big winners:
• "The Twilight Samurai" (Japan), directed by Yoji Yamada, earned the First Hawaiian Bank Golden Maile Feature Award. The film, set in the twilight of the samurai era prior to the civil war and the Meiji Restoration, is about a lowly swordsman earning a meager salary as an office clerk, who has to sell his sword — the soul of the samurai — to pay for his mother's funeral. Producers were Hiroshi Fukazawa and Yoshitaka Asama.
• "Refugee" (United States), directed by Spencer Nakasato, earned the First Hawaiian Bank Golden Maile Documentary Award. It deals with an odyssey to Cambodia by three buddies who attempt to reunite with family they haven't seen in two decades. Producers were Jannette Eng, Spencer Nakasako, Louella Lee and Glades Perreras.
• "The Ride" (Hawai'i), directed and produced by Nathan Kurosawa, earned the Cades Schutte and Cades Foundation Hawai'i Film & Videomaker Award. It also was one of three audience picks as Best Feature. It imagines a union of a modern-day surfer with a youthful Duke Kahanamoku (the father of surfing), and premiered as a Sunset on the Beach attraction, drawing record crowds and a positive thumbs-up from viewers.
Other prizewinners:
• Film in Hawaii Award — James MacArthur, now a California resident, former co-star of the CBS-TV series, "Hawaii Five-O." Presented by the state to honor a recipient who helped develop Hawai'i as a filming destination.
• Blockbuster Video Audience Award — "The Ride," Best Feature; "They Call Her Ladyfingers (The Betty Loo Taylor Story)," directed by Patricia Gillespie and produced by Sam Polson, Documentary Award; "Dragon of Love," directed by Doan La and produced by Hieu Ho and Cindy Yoshiyama, Best Short Film winner.
• Kodak Vision Award for Cinematography — Dean Semler, an Australian cinematographer whose credits include "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior," "Dances With Wolves," "City Slickers," "Waterworld," "Dragonfly" and "Bruce Almighty." His latest, "The Alamo," has been delayed till April.
• Special Jurors Award — "Goodbye Dragon Inn" (Taiwan), a film by Tsai Ming-Liang.
Jurors this year included Roger Garcia, former director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival and a writer-editor of books on film; Lalitha Gopalan, who teaches film studies at Georgetown University; Kirk Honeycutt, film reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter; Merata Mita, a respected indigenous activist, actress, educator and filmmaker from the Ngati Pikiao tribe from the Bay of Pigs; and Mark Rydell, a veteran director of such films as "On Golden Pond."
Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
